How can a Christian man lead his family in a way that maximizes God’s approval, his family members’ thriving, and his own satisfaction? That is what we are going to talk about in this chapter.
A man’s duty to his family is a sacred trust, given by God. And that duty is bound up with the broader mission that God has given to the whole church. Our mission, or “Great Commission,” which is given by Jesus Christ, is to disciple the nations. And this commission is rooted in the ultimate authority of Jesus Christ. As we read in Matthew 28:18–19,
Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
For the church to carry out this mission, some Christians must go to foreign nations, bringing the gospel with them. Yet the Great Commission is not a call for every Christian to become an overseas missionary. While some are sent overseas, there is another way that we disciple the nations. Namely, we—those of us who do not go overseas—stay in our home nation (which is, after all, one of the nations the Lord was talking about) and seek to make disciples in the societies in which the Lord has planted us.
How should we then work within our current society, in order to maximize the impact of our disciple-making efforts? I believe the answer is right in front of us: we begin in our own households. The household is one of the structures that God has instituted, in order to order society and help us live the way He wants to within it. To be more specific, the household is one of the three “spheres of authority” in society. Before we dive into what household-based discipleship looks like, let us examine these spheres of authority. I want to show you that this is a biblical concept.
In the next part, we’ll look at how Scripture legitimizes each sphere of authority — and what that means for your leadership.
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